ELPHINSTONE, WILLIAM (1431-1514), Scottish statesman and prelate, founder of the University of Aberdeen, was born in Glasgow, and educated at the university. He was ordained priest, becoming rector of St. Michael's church, Tron gate, Glasgow, in 1465. Four years later he went to continue his studies at the University of Paris, where he became reader in canon law, and then, proceeding to Orleans, became lecturer in the university there. Before 1474 he had returned to Scotland, and was made rector of the university, and official of the see of Glasgow. Elphinstone was made bishop of Ross in 1481. He was a member of the Scots parliament, and was sent by King James III. on diplomatic errands to Louis XI. of France, and to Edward IV. of England; in 1483 he was appointed bishop of Aberdeen, although his consecration was delayed for four years; and he was sent on missions to England, both before and after the death of Richard III. in 1485. Early in 1488 the bishop was made lord high chancellor, but on the king's death in the following June he vacated this office, and retired to Aberdeen. James IV. sent him on missions to the kings of England and France, and the German king, Maximilian I. He was made keeper of the privy seal in 1492.
The bishop's concluding years were mainly spent in the founda tion of the University of Aberdeen. The papal bull for this pur pose was obtained in 1494, and the royal charter which made old Aberdeen the seat of a university is dated 1498. A small en dowment was provided by the king, and the university, modelled on that of Paris and intended principally to be a school of law, soon became the most famous and popular of the Scots seats of learning, a result which was largely due to the wide experience and ripe wisdom of Elphinstone and of his friend, Hector Boece, the first rector. The building of the college of the Holy Virgin in Nativity, now King's college, was completed in 1506, and the bishop also rebuilt the choir of his cathedral, and built a bridge over the Dee. Elphinstone opposed the policy of hostility towards England which led to the disaster at Flodden in Sept. 1513, and died in Edinburgh on Oct. 25, 1514. He was partly responsible for the introduction of printing into Scotland, and for the production of the Breviarium Aberdonense. He may have written some of the lives in this collection, and gathered together materials con cerning the history of Scotland ; but he did not, as some have thought, continue the Scotichronicon, nor did he write the Lives of Scottish Saints.
EL RENO, a city of Oklahoma, U.S.A., near the North Fork of the Canadian river, 28m. W. by N. of Oklahoma City; the county seat of Canadian county. It is on Federal highways 66 and 81, and is served by the Oklahoma (electric) and the Rock Island railways. The population was 7,737 in 5920 (91% native white), and was 9,384 in 193o by the Federal census. It lies on a rolling prairie, 1,36oft. above sea-level, and is an important ship ping point for poultry, cream and other farm products. Its indus tries include railroad shops, flour mills, washing machine and incubator factories. There is a Government boarding-school for Indians at Concho, 6m. north-west. Ft. Reno Remount Depot is 4m. north-west. A military post was established at Ft. Reno in 1876. The city was founded in 1889 and incorporated in 1892.